FREEPORT — It was as close to smash-mouth football as Aquin could get Friday night.

Especially with a pass-heavy offense that runs every play from the shotgun formation.

The Bulldogs pounded Orangeville with the run, yet stayed balanced on offense to overwhelm the Broncos, 52-14.

“That’s one of the things that makes Aquin one of the top teams in the conference,” Orangeville coach Jay Doyle said. “You try to step back and cover the pass and they hit you with the run. You try to run to stop it and then they pass.”

The Bulldogs (2-1, 2-1 NUIC Upstate) gave sophomore James Gustafson a healthy helping of carries — 33 to be exact. The runningback churned out 228 yards and a touchdown against the Broncos (2-1, 1-1).

“AC (Aiden Chang) threw the ball a lot last week,” Aquin senior left tackle Eli Morhardt said. “We wanted to get the run game going more and we did that this week and proved that we could.

“James ran super hard tonight.”

Aquin was committed to running the ball despite being down 6-0 with 8:13 left in the first quarter, following a 44-yard TD pass from Bryce Brown to Donald Stewart.

“I thought to myself that may have been a little too quick,” Doyle said. “With a team like Aquin, you don’t want to give them the ball back.

“They scored right back.”

Gustafson drove down the field most of the way on Aquin’s first drive and quarterback Aiden Chang threw a six-yard TD strike to Dean Sopcic to tie the game.

Alex Stites tied the game early in the second quarter, but Aquin scored 44 unanswered points to close out the game.

“We just had to clamp down and clean it up because we had a sloppy first half,” Gustafson said. “We came out and took some pride and made more plays on defense.”

Aquin’s offense was balanced overall, which put Orangeville away. Chang finished with a season-high five touchdown passes, going 20 of 26 for 228 yards and no interceptions.

“AC open the run up with some passes,” Gustafson said. “It all just worked out.